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Vidosic rates Germany's young players highly

Australia youngster Dario Vidosic says Germany's young guns can pose a threat during the World Cup.

Vidosic, who plays in Germany with FC Nuremberg (he also had a loan spell with Duisburg last season), knows firsthand what some of the German players are capable of and believes the youth in this squad can lead the way in South Africa and into the future.

"Their younger players are definitely doing particularly well and I think Mesut Ozil is a good chance to start, playing for Werder Bremen and there's some other ones as well," Vidosic said.

"I've played against most of them and I've basically played against their whole starting eleven so I know them pretty well.

"Germany is a team that's not mentioned a lot. They are always rated as one of the favourites but they are never put down as the team to win it.

"But if you look at all the tournaments they've been in they've always been in the finals or the semi-finals.

"I think with the younger blood they've got in the team this year they'll really make a push for it, so we want to stop them on the first day and that's what we're aiming to do."

Vidosic added that the loss of midfielder Michael Ballack is a huge one for Joachim Low's side and believes he will be hard to cover.

"I think Ballack will be a big loss for them, he's the captain and for us it would be like losing Lucas Neill," he added.

"He's been around the major tournaments and when you have younger players it's always good to have that younger experience."